7 Proven Ways to Optimize Your Workspace to Increase Productivity
Day by day, companies encourage their workers to be productive. Work productivity isn’t about the completion of daily work tasks on time but achieving the target set in the most efficient manner while maintaining the employee’s well-being and positive emotions along the line. In other words, it is about providing and optimizing the work environment to be suitable and to promote worker productivity. The study conducted by the Journal of Experimental physics found out that if a work environment is optimized well enough, it can increase the employee’s productivity on cognitive tasks about 25% or more. A lot of research also proves that using ergonomic tools like standing desks and ergonomic chairs can greatly improve productivity, but only that does not get the job done. So how do you design your work environment for maximum productivity? Well, here are the ways how you can do that.
Reinvent Your Workspace
Reinventing your workspace is all about colors. The color choice of your workplace is not just about personal inclination. The design or colors used in a workplace affects the mood. Some colors promote unity, peace, calmness while others bring outrage and anger and all of the colors have their various effects. Most offices, unfortunately, give this off-white/beige color which tends to bore out workers while probably reducing the rate at which productivity strives. Use blue to achieve calmness and focus, red to increase job priority, green to minimize stress and yellow to promote positive energy around the office.
Ritualize and Personalize Your Work Environment
A work ritual can be something you do every day in the morning before you start working. Do you start your job every morning in a particular way? Do you grab a cup of coffee every morning from your localized coffee place or Starbucks? Whether you work at home or an office, you have to have a constant method you go through every morning. Due to this repetition of the daily task before work, you can always get yourself into the “work mood” thereby increasing productivity.
Personalizing your workplace is very different from ritualizing your workspace. Customizing your workspace involves placing objects familiar to you around your work environment. This can include a screen saver of your family or loved ones on your workplace computer, a photo of your pet or a framed photo of your family or your spouse.
Improve Brightness and Lightning
To optimize your work environment for better productivity, you need to make sure you provide proper natural lightening instead of just fluorescents.
Research shows that natural lightning improves health, behaviors, mood, and productivity over time. A good work environment basically has large windows with plenty of natural light flooding into the room. If your office does not have this, I suggest you start making plans to install them to improve you and your co-worker’s work mood.
Try Keeping your Workplace Fresh with Flowers and Air Fresheners
Fresh air and nice smell have been proven to be effective when it comes to boosting productivity. To achieve this, you must make provisions for air fresheners while forming the habit of opening windows from time to let fresh air in. If you stay in a stuffy and nasty smelling office, can you work for hours? No, you tend to lose concentration from time to time due to the unpleasant smell.
A study shows that although humans tend to react differently to certain scents, there are certain scents which also tends to improve mood while altering positive emotions. When you are exposed to certain scents, you tend to be more productive. It could be your favorite scent of air freshener, your favorite perfume or even fresh air that can help you kick start your morning while taking you through a very productive day.
Always Make Snacks and Water Available
Drinking water and staying hydrated is vital for your health, memory and most importantly, your productivity. Working on a full stomach helps you to be focused while doing your job.
Experts suggest that drinking up to 8 cups of water daily can help regulate your hydration level while avoiding dehydration. Try to always keep a bottle of water near you while you work and always around you. Always keep snacks within reach too. For people who can get too engrossed into work, you can schedule breaks to drink water and eat snacks. For others that want to be adventurous, you can keep both healthy and unhealthy snacks beside you or around while using them to reward yourself after every milestone completed successfully.
Keep the Pain off Your Legs, Hip and Back
Do you sit concentrated behind your desk engrossed in your job then all of a sudden you start hearing little clicking sounds on your shoulder, hips or within your spine?
Well, that is the sound of bad posture. Maybe you have not been using a footrest, and sometimes you can feel your legs getting cramped up day by day. Correct healthy posture is fundamental when doing your job. Standing desk is the right option to maintain the healthy posture and spine. Getting sit-stand desk can improve your balance, increase your comfort while working while stimulating and increasing productivity.
If you have problems with the height of your keyboard or the distance from your limbs to the keyboard, you can consider setting up an ergonomic keyboard tray.
Make a Home for Gadgets at Your Work Environment
Technology as a whole can help you get efficient and organized. Tablets, smartphones, personal computers, and other gadgets can help boost productivity, but they can also help hinder daily work. Most people get distracted using gadgets that they actually do not end up finishing their job for the day.
Find a sacred corner in your office and make a home for your gadgets. Arrange them there knowing that they should be used only when work-related uses come around. You can also use the productivity improvement apps to avoid distractions. Use gadgets but don’t allow gadgets to use you.
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